It's kind of sickening the way the Democrats want to hang the Iraqis out to dry. It's obvious that if we are going to stabilize Iraq we need our troops there.

Our main goals need to be getting normal life back to the people in Iraq.

Iraq asks US troops to stay for two more years
By Alex Spillius
Last Updated: 6:49pm BST 11/05/2007

Iraqs president asked America to keep its troops in Iraq for up to two more years after the US Congress voted to limit funding for the war.

Jalal Talabani met with Tony Blair yesterday
Speaking at the Cambridge Union Society, Jalal Talabani said Iraqi forces would not be prepared to take charge of security for one or two years.

We are concerned and we hope that Congress will review this decision and help the American army to stay until the Iraqi army will be ready, he said.

Iraqi MPs have also been visiting Washington this week pleading with Democrat legislators to support the war, but so far their appeals have fallen on deaf ears.

Late yesterday the Democrat-majority House of Representatives voted to fund US troops in phases dependent on the countrys progress, deepening its struggle with President George W Bush for control of the war.

The bill, approved by 221 to 205 votes, agreed to release £22.5 billion ($43 billion) immediately but told the president he must demonstrate improvements in Iraq in July before any of the remaining £26.5 billion ($53 billion) he has requested is released.

Mr Bush immediately threatened to use his veto on an Iraq bill for the second time, having last week blocked a measure that set a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces.

Ill veto the bill if it is this haphazard, piecemeal funding, he said.

Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, said: This legislation ends the blank cheque for the presidents war without end.

Mr Bush has grown accustomed to the free hand on Iraq he had before January 4. Those days are over, she added, referring to the date when the Democrat party took over the House and Senate after winning mid-term elections late last year.

Since then the Democrats, who were elected partly because of the unpopularity of a war that has now claimed the lives of 3,379 American service personnel, have been on a collision course with a Republican president determined pursue his new strategy of taming the violence in Iraq with 30,000 troop reinforcements.

The legislation will next week move to the Senate, where it may struggle to pass as the Democrats only have a majority of two.

An intense round of legislative bartering over redrafting the bill will follow, with all parties hoping to strike a final deal by the end of the month.

The commander of US forces in Iraq today warned his soldiers not to abuse Iraq detainees after a survey found that one third of US troops approve of torture as a method of gathering intelligence.

Gen David Petraeus said in a letter to troops: Beyond the basic fact that such actions are illegal, history shows that they often are neither useful nor necessary.

A survey carried out by the armys mental health advisory team and released last week, found that more than a third of US combat troops deployed in Iraq condone torture to obtain important information from an insurgent.

Nearly one in 10 of those surveyed acknowledged personally mistreating civilians or damaging their property unnecessarily.

We're not going to. It is going to be very interesting to see how this plays out for the US in the next decade. Truth be told, we are Great Britain C. 1937; though with a heck of alot more money and ability, we are willing to toss it away. I'm truly not understanding why, but do understand that is what we are doing.

We're not going to. It is going to be very interesting to see how this plays out for the US in the next decade. Truth be told, we are Great Britain C. 1937; though with a heck of alot more money and ability, we are willing to toss it away. I'm truly not understanding why, but do understand that is what we are doing.

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"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." --Abraham Lincoln

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